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They got home late last night and she proceeded to tell me how the next campsite over got visited by a bear that stole their bread and trail mix. That’s it-she’s never going again. I prefer my children un-eaten by bears, thankyouverymuch.

momof2kitties-where’s your sense of adventure? (insert smileyfacehere). Maybe have them take up instruments and go to Music Camp? I don’t think they have bears, bears don’t have opposable thumbs and have a lousy sense of rhythm, so they can’t play drums, either.

If you leave your food in the car or not in the bear-proof bins then what do you expect?

When I was little a family did the same thing and the bear came down, opened the car like it was a candy bar wrapper and took off with the cooler, TOWARDS OUR TENT. My brother and I were inside asleep and my father was behind the tent trying to think of what he was going to do if the bear walked into it. Luckily the bear didn’t like the smell of mosquito repellent and went left. My father needless to say, went right.

For those who have never seen one before this is a ground squirrel.. Thieving clowns of the western campground. They dig a burrow in the ground and are partial to the following: nuts seeds fruit and any of these you give them oreos, cheetos, chips, cookies, cake and do not let them fool you. They have been known to work together to steal an item left unattended or even attended but your back is turned momentarily. I have seen them cart off a quarter of a watermellon.

He’s amazingly unfazed by the giant knife a couple of inches away! I think he’s plotting something… I’m picturing the photographer turning around and finding that the other ground squirrels have made off with the food while this one created a cute diversion (cuteversion?).

Katrina & Kar-Yeah, it makes you wonder about some people. I guess the “Beware of bears” signs posted all over the area weren’t quite clear enough? Fortunately, both my daughter and my husband seem unfazed by the whole ordeal.

camp ground squirrels are sometimes pretty fat, lots of food to eat and hand outs.
i believe a bernaise would be a lil heavy for this lil chunk, maybe just a light EVOO (as that irritating rachael ray would say)

This is my trip to Yellowstone in a nutshell! Those little rascals are everywhere. They come out during the day when people are out seeing the sites and comb over your belongings (or you, if you’re still) for crumbs…

My dh and I went camping for our honeymoon. The raccoons were so bad. Our roommate went with us to help setup. When we came back from getting firewood, he was on the top of his car. Apparently a momma raccoon came and played good ‘coon bad ‘coon with him over a bag of chips. You know the game – look cute and innocent so someone will start feeding you chips, while the other one sneaks up and steals the bag of chips.

They were all over that week. One night we made dinner and left the pan on the table, it was clean (no food left in it). The cooler had a bungee cord on it to keep them out. All night we heard TWAAAAAANNNG TWAAAAANG. Finally my husband got annoyed and picked up a dowel that we were using near the tent, threw it and hit a cooler on the picnic table. Next thing we know we hear the cooler get knocked off the table and a bunch of scampering noises. It made about 5 people crack up and my husband yelled “‘coon in the corner pocket”

Turns out we got there the week after many momma’s had their babies and were very hungry.

This is so true! Once backpacking, I turned around to find a whole crew had demolished the sandwiches and gorp in my pack! Was so funny to see them scatter when I came close to the log I’d propped my pack against, but it was a hungry trip back down the mountain. And I got pictures!

Ahh !! Columbian Ground Squirrel!! So cute!
These little guys were everywhere in Banff/Yoho National Park. Adorable little guys. Will take food right out of your hand. They were especially fond of mango. I gave them my mango pit, and they carried it into their hole.. found it a couple hours later back in my campsite licked right clean. I thought it was cute that they gave it back. They also got into my bag of cashews. :P

At the camp where we just had our family reunion they called these “potguts” and they were everywhere, especially at mealtimes, where they volunteered to help clean up before we were finished eating! I never saw one get this bold, though!